Give me a kiss ---a request made by one or another of the ten couples who are part of The Blue Room's daisy
chain of sexual encounters.

It would have been beautiful if I had kissed her only on the eyes-- the Aristocrat who brings the sexual daisy chain back to its beginning the
morning after a night spent with a prostitute. Being Nicole Kidman, she is beautiful enough for
him to fantasize about something purer and more meaningful than sex -- to wit, the
kiss.

The Blue Room's ten characters manage to copulate in
all sorts of places and positions. The encounters bring the requisite pleasurable buzz, but never
for very long or with any durable sense of satisfaction. It's the less steamy connection, a simple
kiss, that represents the possibility of something more beautiful, better, purer.

In case you're not aware what exactly The Blue Room is about besides the vastly over-hyped
baring of Nicole Kidman's very attractive butt, a brief summary.

The play began life in 1897 as Arthur Schnitzler's dramatic expose of the decadence of his own
Austrian society and since Schnitzler was a doctor, also as an exploration of syphilis.
Schnitzler's title, Reigen ("round dance" or "roundelay") was much less cryptic than the current
one. The way Schnitzler's worked out his rich in irony "roundelay" was to have ten characters of
different ages and from different strata of society go through a round robin of sexual encounters,
with each one reprising one partner from a previous scene. Because of its explicit content the
play wasn't produced for twenty years and its printed version circulated only to the author's
friends. It didn't make much of a stir until the 1950 French movie version, La Ronde.

This brings us to The Blue Room which serves as the title, the physical setting and a briefly sung
song for David Hare's "freely adapted" version. Actually, having pulled out my little Dover copy
of the original text (see Addendums and Links below) before going to see
what Hare has wrought, I can assure you that he hasn't departed all that drastically from the
original scheme of things. We have the same ten character daisy chain only they
meet, make love and part in present-day London. The generic labels given all the characters have
been appropriately updated so that the soldier is now a cab driver (which in a modern metropolis
can be akin to soldiering) and the parlor maid has become an au pair. A character Schnitzler called the count has now been
rather quaintly dubbed "Aristocrat" While Hare has added some nice dialogue, he's also kept
much of Schnitzler's. The resulting mix of phrases from the turn of the century and its end is
at times effective (Both the Schnitzler and Hare characters are concerned about health risks
though the problems alluded to have changed and expanded). Often, however, it sounds out of
synch; for example, the husband who's now identified as a politician sounds suspiciously
old-style Euro male with his reference to "two types of women."

The Blue Room's most drastic change is the shift from a ten-actor play to a two-hander. This
does indeed give Schnitzler's cynical view of sexual and social mores a new edge. When all
these characters are played by two people there is the added implication that this cross-section
of society is emotionally
shaped with the same cookie cutter, making the outcome
of their sexual encounters even more predictably stamped with a sense of disappointment and
disillusionment.

Hare's pared down cast concept works well in the sense that the two stars tackle their multiple
roles
with enthusiasm and much skill. Miss Kidman is not just a pretty face with a Wow! shape, but
an actor who can use voice and gestures as purposefully as her body.
We do indeed get to know the body
that's caused all the publicity and that most widely circulated ever "sheer theatrical viagra" pull quote
We see even more of Mr. Glen's which isn't at all bad either. His full frontal nude cartwheel may seed
a whole new wave of aerobics in the altogether. While the much talked about Kidman nudity is not frontal and comes
and goes in a flash (and is dimly lit) there are, as the image at the top of
this review indicates, plenty of generously revealing outfits throughout the one hundred intermissionless
minutes. The costumes and hairdos of both actors are amazing less for what they do or don't
reveal as for the speed with which they are donned, often right on stage. Most importantly,
both actors slip comfortably into their characters' accents and personalities. They also are terrific
comedians. If I had to pick out a standout character for each it would be her prostitute and his
hypocritical politician -- but then again his playwright and her actress are hilarious too.

So much for the up side of this downsized adaptation. The scaled down
cast and the move to present-day London (or a city remarkably like it) rob Schnitzler's
play of much of its irony and mood, making for neither to topnotch Schnitzler or topnotch
Hare.

Mark Thompson's thoroughly post modern floor-to-ceiling royal blue room is edged in a thin line of neon.
Furnishings are minimalist -- a few set pieces rolled in and out as needed. It all perfectly fits
these modern round dancers' tight abs, sushi eating sensibility. They would choke on the
Viennese candied chestnuts and
pastries that are dear to the hearts of Schnitzler's sexual adventurers

Sam Mendes the do-no-wrong artistic director of the trendiest warehouse in London-- The
Donmar -- can't be faulted for not keeping Hare's couples moving along fast
and seamlessly. The sexual acts are done in stylish blackouts accompanied by an electric buzzer.
Sounding as it does like a bug zapper I couldn't help thinking of how these repetitious
encounters seemed as dead as mosquitos trapped by these gadgets. Subtitles announce the
duration of each clinch, from zero for the over-excited student (he gets a second chance and manages twenty-five minutes) to two hours and twenty minutes
for the evenings most tense, drug-stimulated encounter. These announcements get the desired
laughs from the audience but become gimmicky and tiresome before the last countdown.

Many
movie buffs are likely to compare The Blue Room (unfavorably) to the 1950 French movie,
La Ronde (see Addendums and Links
below). However, even though it may be more a case of apples and oranges, a more apt
comparison is to Michael John LaChiusa's
wonderful and highly original musical Hello Again, the very best and most original
La Ronde
adaptation ever to hit the stage. In anticipation of seeing The Blue Room and also
because this
show featured the star of the new musical, Parade, Carolee Carmello, I recently
reserved a
viewing slot of this show at the Lincoln Center Performing Arts Library's taped archives
Even watching it on a less than super clear video
screen, LaChiusa's adaptation is in no danger of being eclipsed by Hare's non-musical "free form"
take.
Unlike Hare, La Chiusa did not lock himself into Schnitzler's era, but neither did he jump right
into
the present. Iinstead he time traveled gradually from old Vienna to the present thereby
extending rather than narrowing Schnitzler's concept.

Should those of you unable to get a hold of a hype-heated ticket feel deprived?

Let me put it this way. The actors are far better than their publicity. The production is
better than a media event. It is theater, but it is not great theater.

It's very much like the debate about whether Tom Wolfe's A Full Man is entertainment
or
literature. Norman Mailer and John Updike in denying it the literature tag have sent Mr. Wolfe
laughing all the way to the bank and insured him a long stay at the top of the best seller list
(see link). As Wolfe's book is an entertaining read but not a ground-breaking novel. The
Blue Room is an entertaining night out at the theater. For
ground-breaking theater, we hope that Mr. Hare, much as we admired his adaptation of
Ivanov,
will go back to digging into his own very original mind and leave the adaptations to those unable
to write good plays like Skylight and Amy's View.

THE BLUE ROOM
Freely Adapted by David Hare from Arthur Schnitzler's Reigen, also known as
known as Hands
Around A Cycle of Ten Dialogues
Directed by Sam Mendes
Starring Nicole Kidman and Iain Glen
Set and Costume design: Mark Thompson
Lighting design: Hugh Vanstone
Music by Paddy Cunneen:
Cort Theatre, 138 West 48th Street, (212/239-6200)
11/27/98-3/07/99.; opening 12/13/98 after a world premiere at the Donmar
Warehouse in London 9/22/98
Seen 12/16 and reviewed by Elyse Sommer

La Ronde, the movie. The 1950 cult film adaptation of the Schnitzler play by the French
director Ophuls is available as a video and not at scalper's prices (and less than half the price of a
ticket) . It stars such film greats as Anton Walbrook, Simone Simon, Daniel Gelin, and the
actress often dubbed as the most beautiful woman in film, Danielle Darrieux. Where The Blue
Room is cool, as in icy cool, Orphul's camera captures the mysteries of time and memory and
gives the film an unforgettable aura of yearning and passion. The film is in black and white with
English subtitles. For ordering details from Amazon.com go here

Hands Around : A Cycle of Ten Dialogue Dover thrift edition of the play from
which The Blue Room was adapted. If you see the play, it will be interesting to compare it to
the original. If you don't, you can have fun playing adapter/director.

If you keep your eye out, you'll find reruns of Nicole Kidman's best known 1995 movie, To
Die
For on your home screen. It's also available in several formats from Amazon
DVD cassette . . .
VHS cassette . . .
NTSC cassette